Future

On 2 September 2026 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the report Limiting Overshoot, on the exceedance of the 1.5°C threshold set out in the Paris Agreement. The document examines what entering a period of exceedance involves and which choices remain available to bring temperatures back below that threshold. The report and the notion…

On 17 January 2026 the United Nations Agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, known by the English acronym BBNJ and also as the High Seas Treaty, entered into force. It is the first legally binding framework dedicated to biodiversity in international waters, which cover almost…

The seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is taking place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August 2026 under the theme Restoring Land. Restoring Hope. The agenda includes preparations for the strategic framework of the Convention for the period beyond 2030, currently entrusted…

On 12 August 2026 the United Nations observes International Youth Day under the theme “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations”. The observance falls just before the release of the International Labour Organization report on youth employment and in a year when data on work, education and connectivity paint an uneven picture, fewer than five years from the…

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, presented at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (7 to 15 July 2026), measures progress and shortfalls of the 2030 Agenda with fewer than five years to the deadline.

Strategic foresight refers to the set of methods that public administrations use to examine, in a structured way, the possible long-term developments of a given field. This piece outlines its definition, its main instruments and its limits, with reference to the practices adopted by the institutions of the European Union with a view to 2030…